The present invention relates generally to a cassette structure for holding and indexing flexible, fragile planar items in a corner of the structure, and for accurately locating the structure in position for removing, one by one, the planar items.
In pending U.S. application Ser. No. 386,622, filed July 31, 1989 by David Hochbein, one of the inventors of the present application, an end effector device is disclosed for vacuum removal of interleaved articles disposed in a vertical stack, or at an angle to the vertical, and for separating and transporting the articles to separate locations. As stated in the application, the invention has particular utility for sequentially separating green ceramic cards from sheets of paper separating the cards from each other.
The disclosure of U.S. application Ser. No. 386,622 is incorporated herein by reference.
As explained further in the above application, it is preferred that cassettes employed for receiving and holding the cards and paper separators be inclined so that the cards will be "indexed" in a lower corner of the cassette. The cards and paper separators must be aligned so that the vacuum device (end effector), which is controlled and programmed to return to the same location each time for the removal operation, which location is the location of the cassette, will in fact properly engage each card and paper separator. It can be appreciated that if the cards and separators are not aligned, and otherwise properly and accurately located, the end effector cannot do its job of sequentially removing the cards and separators, and transporting them to their respective locations.